Changing menus

Chop suey, phooey

How Chinese visitors are changing Chinatown

A HONG KONG chef can do some nifty things with tripe—not all of which appeal to British palates. Faint-hearts are duly warned by the tripe bubbling away in HK Diner, an unusually authentic café in London's Chinatown, with a following that includes homesick Chinese students, former British residents of Hong Kong and off-duty staff from other nearby eateries (the diner closes at 4am).

Most local restaurants hide challenging delicacies on a separate, Chinese-language menu, says the owner, Jon Man. A decade ago Mr Man also offered two menus, the English one filled with the bland, gloopy inventions (sweet and sour pork, chop suey) familiar to generations of visitors to Chinatown, a grid of fragrant, grease-shined streets between Soho and Leicester Square. Mr Man owns another restaurant in Bristol, which still modifies dishes for locals. But now, in London, “We do the real thing.”

A pragmatic bunch, Chinatown's restaurateurs—many from Hong Kong families who arrived in the 1950s and 1960s—have made many concessions to British tastes. The Cantonese themselves eat roast duck at room temperature, chopped up with its bones: food with “texture”, explains Geoffrey Leong, whose family owns some 20 restaurants in London. Real Chinese food does not swim in sweet sauces, as the ersatz kind tends to; it is dry and often spicy, perhaps flecked with chilies or numbing Sichuan pepper. In authentic restaurants, the cooking is the whole point, adds Mr Leong; the romantic atmosphere preferred by many Britons is irrelevant. Indeed, bright lights are a plus, so diners can see they are getting fresh, clean stuff.

But in the past few years Chinatown's market has changed. It now includes lots of Chinese mainlanders, both visiting students and businessmen. The British themselves travel more and have developed more adventurous tastes. Meanwhile the old customers—Western tour groups, drinkers looking for late-night stodge—have become less plentiful. Though all-you-can-eat buffets still abound, a growing band of pioneers now flaunt good food, cooked right: not just standards from Canton or Sichuan, but Shanghainese dumplings (bursting with ginger-scented broth) or Taiwan's finest stew, “three cups” chicken.

Amid the new opportunities, however, some veterans are struggling. Rents are rising; crippling new visa rules are hitting both chefs and customers, especially foreign students. The London Chinatown Chinese Association (LCCA), which represents local businesses, is trying to halt a recent influx of betting shops. “We don't want a mini Las Vegas,” says Suzannah Kwok of the LCCA.

Chinatown hangs in the balance. Yet it has never been easier to find good cooking there. Hurry, food-lovers.